User Story Map + Objectives = Awesome

So we have all seen User Story Maps, they are an awesome tool for breaking down large chunks of work into smaller goals or releases. If you haven’t heard of them you must… There is a book by Jeff Patten and he has written numerous posts on the subject. This is a really great free pdf.

You also might have seen the move towards the importance of Objective & Key Results (OKRs) and even OKR based roadmaps or throwing those roadmaps out in favour of OKRs. Done right, OKRs have the potential to align product team effort with an overall strategy whilst enabling changes in direction by not defining features to be delivered up front.

Recently whilst working on a user story map we were finding it tricky to decide what to prioritise above others. What was more critical. Just below the used every time, so we went and got out MOGS document (Mission Objectives, Goals, Strategies) and wrote those objectives on post-it notes up above each area of the user flow. This gave us a measure to prioritise against. We found asking the question how does this feature affect that objective a useful question to ask.